Commercial procedures for treating freshly killed poultry or meat generally require that the temperature of the fresh killed product be reduced in accordance with standards established by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Conventionally, the fresh killed product is treated with brine to lower the temperature of the food product to about 45.degree. F. This procedure reduces water loss in the product, prevents the growth of bacteria and extends the shelf life of the food product.
The brine treated product is then cut and/or ground as desired prior to packaging. The cutting/grinding step generates heat thereby increasing the temperature of the food product. Prior to packaging the food product, however, it is necessary to lower the temperature of the food product in the range of from about 30.degree. to 40.degree. F.
Conventional methods of chilling the food product after it has been cut/ground and treated with brine involve manual operations. Specifically, the food product is placed in a large, often times rectangular vessel. Dry ice in the form of pellets is shoveled into the vessel to lower the temperature of the food product to meet USDA requirements.
Such manual systems, however, are inefficient and inconsistent. The shoveling of dry ice into the receiving vessel often produces localized cold spots so that a portion of the food product is chilled to lower than necessary temperatures while other portions of the food product remain above desired temperatures. To date, there is no apparatus or method which uniformly distributes the food product within the storage vessel and uniformly treats the food product with a coolant as it is distributed within the vessel.
It would be a significant advance in the art of chilling food products, if the food product can be uniformly distributed within the food receiving vessel while receiving a uniform distribution of a coolant.